Your Eyes Are Deceiving You—Rewire Your Perspective, Transform Everything
Most people try to change their lives from the outside in. The real secret? Change it from the inside out.
Perspective has its own inertia—once it shifts, it doesn’t stop.
Like a rolling boulder, it gathers speed—changing the way you see yourself, others, and the world itself.
The only question is: which direction are you rolling?
The Ripple Effect
Change begins within, and as you shift your internal world, those changes ripple outward—one layer at a time.
Think of it like orbiting better thoughts. The gravity you generate pulls you through the natural phases of life-betterment:
1️⃣ Change the way you see yourself
2️⃣ Change the way you see others
3️⃣ Change the way you see the world
And once this cycle starts, the momentum carries you further than you ever expected.
👉 Phase 1: Change How You See Yourself
Here’s something most people don’t realize:
You don’t control which thoughts enter your mind.
You only control which ones you pay attention to.
Let me prove it:
🚫 Don’t think of a pink elephant.
I’ll bet you just pictured one.
That’s how easily a thought can be placed into your mind—without your permission.
And this is why most people struggle with shifting their perspective. They think the key is to stop bad thoughts from appearing. But that’s impossible. The real skill? Directing your attention.
Imagine your attention is a spotlight on a dark stage.
If you shine it on negative, anxious, or unhelpful thoughts, those thoughts become your reality.
If you shift it toward gratitude, curiosity, and solutions, your experience changes—without anything in the external world actually changing.
The first step to shifting your perspective isn’t eliminating bad thoughts. It’s choosing better ones to focus on.
The Elephant and the Rider
Jonathan Haidt illustrates this wonderfully in The Happiness Hypothesis:
🏇 The rider is your rational mind—logical, analytical, and planning.
🐘 The elephant is your emotional mind—powerful, reactive, and instinct-driven.
And here’s the problem: the rider isn’t as strong as the elephant.
If the elephant decides to charge in a certain direction, the rider can’t just yank the reins and force it to stop. Willpower alone won’t work.
Instead, the goal is harmony—guiding your emotions rather than fighting them.
This same push-and-pull applies to shifting your perspective.
Too little control? Your mind runs wild.
Too much control? You become rigid and detached.
The goal is balance. And the first step to achieving it? Becoming aware of where your elephant is already heading.
Here’s how to start.
The Mood Audit: A Practical Exercise
Next time you feel off, pause and ask yourself—brutally but kindly:
👉 Why am I feeling this way?
Am I hungry? Tired? Stressed?
Did something specific happen?
Am I reacting to something I can’t control?
Did your team just get smoked in the Super Bowl? (Sorry Chiefs nation)
Then, ask:
🤔 Does this mood serve me?
If yes—lean into it, learn from it.
If no—redirect your attention.
That last part is key. People think they have to wait for bad moods to pass naturally. But you don’t. You can shift your focus in real time.
That’s the real secret to changing perspective.
And once you start doing it consistently, something unexpected happens:
You begin to see others differently too.
👉 Phase 2: Change How You See Others
Something fascinating happens when you start seeing your own thoughts more clearly:
You stop assuming other people have perfect control over theirs.
Empathy sneaks in.
The walls between you and other people start to lower. Instead of seeing differences, you start noticing similarities. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with people, you see what’s interesting about them.
And here’s why this matters:
You now understand the battle for attention inside your own head. Which means you realize—everyone else is fighting that battle too.
Think about it:
That stranger who snapped at you? Might be lost in their own spiral of thoughts.
That friend who pulled away? Might be struggling with emotions they don’t know how to process.
Once you see this, connection gets easier. So does patience. So does forgiveness.
And here’s where the Golden Rule starts to feel less like a cliché and more like a practice:
You know how hard it is to navigate your mind.
💡 So—how would you want people to treat you while you’re in it?
Treat people that way.
This shift makes people far more interesting.
Because now, instead of judging someone at face value, you start wondering: What’s their elephant? Where’s their rider trying to go?
And when you do this—when you apply empathy consistently—you unlock the final, biggest perspective shift of all:
The way you see the world.
👉 Phase 3: Change How You See the World
By changing the way you see yourself…
By shifting the way you see others…
…you unlock the ability to experience the world differently. 🌎
You become more present. More open. More attuned to the good around you.
And suddenly, things shift:
The grass seems a little greener.
The cold feels a little less harsh.
The sun shines a little brighter.
The world didn’t change—you did.
At first, this shift feels small. Almost unnoticeable.
But over time? It compounds.
A negative comment that would’ve ruined your day bounces off you.
A stressful situation that used to overwhelm you becomes manageable.
A conversation with a stranger becomes a chance to learn something new.
This is the ultimate power of perspective:
It turns the same world into a better experience.
Once your perspective starts to shift, it doesn’t stop. Like a rolling boulder, it gathers speed—through self, through others, through the world.
The only question is:
Which direction are you rolling?
Final Thoughts: The Inertia of Perspective
Perspective has inertia.
The more you shift it, the more naturally it shifts.
And here’s where most people get it wrong: They think changing perspective is about forcing a positive mindset overnight.
It’s not.
It’s about:
Catching yourself when you focus on the wrong thoughts
Redirecting your attention toward better ones
Letting that shift compound over time
Once started, this process doesn’t stop. It keeps rolling.
From self → to others → to the world.
The result?
Your world will never look the same again.
Happy Sunday,
Brady